The top three are in order of preference, the top ten kind
of, and the rest fairly haphazard. Most of them are people I
like; a couple are definitely not nice, but
interesting.
1. Artie Wu & Quincy Durant (series, Ross Thomas). They
are a great team: smart, tough, colloquial, devious, yet
honourable. (These two are practically the only pair still
stuck together as one entry.) 2. John Rebus (series, Ian
Rankin): A character who develops well through the series. 3.
Hoke Moseley (series, Charles Willeford): Likeable,
pragmatic. 4. Detective Sergeant Department of Unexplained
Deaths (Factory series, Derek Raymond): Philosophical,
melancholy, sentimental even--but insightful. 5. Angela
Gennaro (series, Dennis Lehane): Principled, yet not averse
to violence when necessary. 6. Lew Archer (series, Ross
Macdonald): I discovered him early and for years read
whatever Macdonalds I could find. 7. Travis McGee (series,
John D. MacDonald): Ditto. Should I confess that for a while
I used to get Ross and John D. (Archer and McGee) mixed up?
Unbelievable, isn't it? 8. V.I. Warshawski (series, Sara
Paretsky): She's independent, resourceful, intelligent. I've
read 'em all, though not necessarily when they first came
out. 9. Martin Beck (series, Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo): A
great series, but rather hard to find. Beck and the other
cast of characters go through a lot of changes over time. 10.
Eddie Coyle (THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE, George V. Higgins):
Read the book recently. A well-drawn character. 11. Milo
Milodragovitch (series, James Crumley): Just got on to Milo
and Shugrue and read two in a row. For some reason, I like
Milo better. 12. Dave Brandstetter (series, Joseph Hansen):
Gay detective, good stories. 13. Marcus Clay (series, George
Pelecanos): Very sympathetic in King Suckerman. Haven't read
the others. 14. Hawk (Spenser series, Robert Parker): Maybe
not the original psycho sidekick (was that decided?), but
definitely a prototype. Not all that psycho, either. 15. C.
W. Shugrue (series, James Crumley): See Milo above.
Intriguing character. 16. Philip Marlowe (series, Raymond
Chandler): I'm just returning to the source (read The Big
Sleep a couple of weeks ago, plus an anthology of short
stories) and rediscovering why Chandler is the master. He
gives a lot less background on Marlowe than contemporary
writers do of their protagonists, but the dialogue is
priceless. 17. Chili Palmer (GET SHORTY and BE COOL, Elmore
Leonard): A cool guy (well played by Travolta, I thought). Be
Cool is not nearly as good as Get Shorty. 18. Frederick J.
Frenger, Jr. (MIAMI BLUES, Charles Willeford): If you like
psychos with a good side ... (Alec Baldwin was good in the
part, too.) 19. Mouse (Easy Rawlins series, Walter Mosley):
Not much to like about Mouse, really, but he's an interesting
character. 20. Lionel Essrog (MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN, Jonathan
Lethem): Very original voice.
Other favourites who didn't qualify Jane Whitefield (not
Whitfield) (series, Thomas Perry): Not colloquial enough to
be hardboiled, but I like her a lot. Knows martial arts and
Indian lore, can work the system to give people new
identities. George Smiley (series, John Le Carr驺 Too
uppercrust to be hardboiled, but a wonderful character.
Karin
PS Primieval (223) should be Primeval
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